


The Boys Next Door

by omnomeevee



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 16:24:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19338214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omnomeevee/pseuds/omnomeevee
Summary: After being friends for a while, Mark invites Seren and Cordelia to go with him and his new roommate to a carnival after a busy move. Seren doesn't know that him and Taeyong just moved in with Cordelia's neighbor until it's too late.





	The Boys Next Door

Seren jumps off her bed and stumbles over Blu. Nearly falling, she rushes to her phone on the other side of the room, trying to get the call before it ends. She reaches it on the last ring and picks up. “H--Hel- Hold on..” She starts.

“You good?” Mark’s confused voice echoes back over the speaker, as Seren catches her breath.

“Yup, just almost died, but I’m fine.”

“What do you mean, are you okay?” His voice jumped from confusion to concern, pitching up a bit.

“Yeah, yeah, tripped over Blu. What’s up, what’s the call for? I thought you were busy moving.”

Seren can almost hear Mark thinking through the phone. “Yeah, about that. We're settled and there’s a carnival going on. I was going to go up there with Johnny, but it figured it would be weird, two guys hanging out. I was gonna see if you and a friend wanted to come?” The question is long winded and he speaks fast, Seren almost didn’t catch it.

“I’ll see if Cord wants to go. We can meet you there?” Seren replies to him, already texting Cordelia to ask.

“Sounds great. See you in like, an hour and a half?”

“Yup, that should work.”

“Cool. Really excited to spend more time together. It’ll be fun!” Mark says before he clicks the phone.

Soon enough Cordelia shows up at Seren and Nix’s place, dressed comfy and with her hair thrown into a ponytail. Seren looks at her, wondering if she remembered they were actually going out and not sitting and watching movies at home.

“Yes, I know. But it’s hot and I want to be comfy. Shorts and a t-shirt is just fine.”

“Well duh, but you know Mark’s friends are all cute.. Right? What if you meet the love of you life tonight?”

“Doubt it. Not happening, fat chance. I’m gonna eat carnival food and not have a care in the world.”

“Okay, okay fine. Don’t say I didn't warn you.” Seren says, slipping her shoes on and walking out the door. The drive is short, and once they find parking, the walk is even shorter.

Mark’s head bops around as he keeps an eye out for them and he waves slowly when he sees them. Seren doesn’t recognize the tall friend too much, as the memory from the basketball court is pushed back into her brain so far she sometimes forgets it happened. Cordelia, on the other hand, would recognize the tall, handsome, dark haired neighbor of hers that she had been avoiding for what seemed like months at this point, absolutely anywhere. Mainly so she could run in the opposite direction.

“Seren, I can’t do this..” Cordelia mumbles, grabbing Seren’s arm. Seren looks at her with brows furrowed in confusion. “I can’t go over there..”

“I told you they were all handsome. Let’s go, he’s probably really nice.” Seren says, dragging Cor over there, no matter the fight she puts up. Cordelia knows he’s nice. Really, really nice. Too nice.

Mark greets Seren with a hug and Cordelia sinks into herself, hoping she can go unnoticed for a bit longer. She locks eyes with Johnny and he smiles, laughing a bit. Cordelia clenches her teeth and forces a smile at Mark when he turns his attention to her. “Hi, nice to finally meet you Cordelia. Ren talks about you a whole lot.”

Cord nods, almost blocking out the fact that Johnny is standing there. “Nice to meet you too, Mark.” She talks slowly, making Seren look at her a bit funny.

Mark gestures to Johnny, “This is Johnny. I know you’ve sort of met him Ren, but I doubt him and Cordelia have.”

Cordelia’s face runs pale at the comment and mutters out, “Yeah.. No we’ve met.. He’s my neighbor..”

Seren then puts the thought together. His is the neighbor. The handsome one that Cordelia accidentally thought was her dog. Her eyes dart from Cord to Johnny to see how it plays out.

“How you been? Long time, no see.” Johnny laughs, knowing very well what’s going through her head.

“Peachy. Great. Yup.” Cord’s voice has jumped a few notches upward.

“How’s your dog?” Seren starts to hold back laughs at this point, knowing what Cordelia had said while looking for Ruckus.

Cordelia lets out a high pitched, whimpered “He’s fine,” and Ren absolutely loses it.

She laughs, guiding them through the entrance, holding on to Cordelia’s arm so she can’t run away. Though a fit of laughter, Seren is able to pull Cord aside as the boys go and buy tickets to ride a few rides.

“Star I swear to god, shut the fuck up.” Cordelia girts through her teeth, glancing to make sure Johnny isn’t around. “He remembers me!”

“I KNOW!” Seren is nearly bent over in pain from how much it hurts to laugh.

“That’s it, you and Mark can’t date. I’ll fucking throw myself into on coming traffic.”

“Do you want Nix’s to DJ your funeral?”

“I hate you.”

“Not as much as you hate yourself for what you said to Johnny, your next door neighbor.”

“How do you always end up in these situations? Does Mark do goddamn voodoo or something?” Cord is in a frantic and Seren can’t help but laugh as the boys come back. Mark is lost, unsure why Cordelia is so embarrassed about being neighbors with Johnny. When Johnny joins the three of them, Cordelia shrinks into herself again, shooting a pleading “Get me out of here” look at Seren.

Mark tries to break the weird tension. “So, if you and Johnny are Neighbors, that means we're neighbors now..” He looks at Cordelia as we walk on to the fairgrounds.

“Oh..” Cordelia looks everywhere but at Mark and Johnny, taking in the sights, but really just avoiding making eye contact. “That’s gonna be.. Interesting... huh?” She forced a little laugh. Seren laughs to herself, pointing out a ride. Mark and Seren walk a bit ahead of Cordelia and Johnny, excitedly trying to decide what rides to go on. Cordelia just hopes that Seren and Mark manage to pick rides where they don’t have to pair off with one another. Oh god, she hopes they don’t have to pair off with one another.

The two pick out a way they’re going to get to a few rides, and throw in a few chances to play some games, per Mark’s request. There’s some small talk between three of them, but Cordelia only talks to Seren and Mark, Johnny has to address her before she pays attention. Every time he says her name, she can feel her stomach drop. It’s not long before they have to split up in pairs and Cor latches on to Seren. “She’s my riding buddy,” shooting Mark a look as he pouted a bit. “Sorry, I don’t make the rules.”

On the ride, Cord can nearly strangle Seren. She knows she shouldn’t be nervous, but the fact that her first encounter with her neighbor was her calling him a ‘scrumptious boy’ on accident haunts her.  
“Do you think Mark knows?” Cord questions.

“If he didn’t, I’m sure he just asked Johnny by now,” Seren raises her eyebrow at Cordelia.

In another part of the ride, Johnny is in fact telling a curious little Mark the whole story. In vivid, word for word, detail. He’s so dramatic he sets the scene: him, minding his business, watering his plants. How warm it was that day and the strange but sort of endearing voice she made as she called out to her dog. How when he found the dog, he couldn’t have laughed more seeing the small thing as the interaction came running back to his head. Mark held back a few laughs, but now realized how embarrassing it was for Cordelia, thinking back on how embarrassed Seren was all those times they ran into each other.

After the ride, Mark suggests playing a few games. Cordelia starts to settle a bit, seeing that Mark and Seren are being cute, laughing and having a playful banter about who will be better at the games when Johnny decides to try and talk to her.

“So,” He starts, as Cordelia flutters her eyes and takes a deep breath just to look at him, “weird how Mark ended up meeting your friend and now we get to meet again.”

“I sometimes wish I didn’t meet you the first time…” Cord deadpans, then realizes how shitty it sounded. “That’s totally not what I mean.”

Johnny flashes her a smile, the type that travels to the eyes and Cordelia can feel her heart skip for a second. “Well, I’m sort of glad we met that time,” He laughs, rubbing his neck shyly. He nods to Mark and Seren, as Seren points out a small stuffed animal from a random array of them. “When do you think they’ll start dating?”

“Ren and Mark?” Cord looks lovingly at her friend. “Soon, I’d like to think. I know Seren likes him a lot.” Seren comes skipping with a small little puppy stuffie and presents it to Cord and Johnny.

“Tada!” She says in a baby voice, shutting her eyes as she smiles.

“You won?” Cordelia asks.

“No, she did not.” Mark pops his head out from behind Seren, doing a small little victory dance. They all laugh at Seren’s pout and side eye at Mark.

“I’m hungry,” She changes the subject off her loss.

Mark points at the ferris wheel, leaning on Johnny for a second, who nods in unison to Mark’s finger waggle. Seren and Cordelia looked at each other, both feeling a different sense of panic.The boys grab the girls arms and take them over to the line. Cordelia has a sign of relief when she sees Johnny gently grabs Seren’s arm and not hers. She has another one when she realizes the four of them can ride together. But then wide eyes when she sees Seren and Mark sit together on one side, leaving her no choice but to sit next to Johnny. She glares at Seren, who beams back at her with a devilish smile. Cordelia juts her hand forward from under her chin and Seren mouths ‘I love you too’ in response. Soon enough, Seren and Mark are too busy babbling about the pretty sunset that it seems like it’s just Cordelia and Johnny.

They're sitting so close Cordelia can feel the heat radiating between them. She keeps her head down, staring at her shoes pretending she’s trying to get something off of them. Johnny clears his throat and it makes Cordelia nearly jump out of her skin. “I’m sorry, I startled you..” Johny laughs. Cordelia thinks his laugh sounds a bit like velvet feels.

“It’s okay, I was just…” She looked for words to say, but she couldn’t just tell him she was ignoring his existence. That would be rude, right? She gets lost in her head and is only brought back to Johnny laughing again.

“You’re really ignoring me, aren't you?”

“What, no.” But yes. Of course she is. Every time she looks at Johnny she can’t help but have flashbacks of her hiding under her dining table because he was at the door. “Nope, not ignoring you.” She scoots away a bit, but there isn’t much room to go.

“Okay,” He says, “Even if you were I wouldn't blame you, I get annoying sometimes. Just ask Mark.”

Cordelia stays quiet. He’s being nice again. Why is this guy so nice? Any other person would be glad the strange girl from next door who has strange pet names for her dog was ignoring them. Why did he continue to be so nice to her? She didn’t get it. Even though Cordelia wasn’t saying much back to him, he talked the whole ride. As much as his voice had grown on her in the past few hours, she just wanted to get off. Being so close to him, his niceness just running through his veins and pulsing through the air around them was making Cordelia more nervous. Even more than the fact she was an idiot and didn’t check the bushes before calling out to Ruckus. “My friends think that the story is pretty funny..” Johnny trails off.

Cordelia looks up at him, confused. “Story? What story?”

“The one where you interrupted my gardening..” He can see Cordelia’s face flush when he says it.

“You told people?”

“You didn’t?” He laughs, and Cordelia is ready to jump out of the ferris wheel. Out of all people, it had to be him that lived next door to her. This nice, well spoken guy who didn’t even find it the slightest bit weird. Who used a hot dog to get the dog to come to him but still made sure it was okay that he did when he brought him back.

Cordelia was never so happy to get her feet on solid ground again.

They take on the task of looking for food. By now, the sun had set and people had started to leave, so the food lines were pretty short. They were all hit with the smells, but when at a carnival, who really eats actual food? Suddenly, Mark and Seren simultaneously smacked Cordelia and Johnny’s arms in excitement. A collective “Ow!” follows from Johnny and Cordelia.

They shoot a look at each other and point respectively. “Does that happen to you often?” Cordelia starts the conversation this time.

“Yes. All the time.”

“No Shit.” Cordelia smiles and can feel her previous tension melt away a bit.

Seren is poking her arm repeatedly now. “Chocolate covered fruit. Let’s go. Cor, c’mon.”

The stand has various options, but they all pick pretty easy things. Mark and Seren get two different types of chocolate-covered strawberries to share half and half. Johnny decided to get a piece of cheesecake, and Cordelia goes with the safe bet of a normal chocolate-covered banana, with sprinkles for an extra flare. They find a picnic table nearby and sit together. Cordelia doesn’t throw an internal fit when Johnny sits next to her this time.

As Seren and Mark figure out how to eat their fruit, Cordelia had already taken a bite of hers. She’s looking around, as no one is really talking, and just is enjoying her time. Johnny looks over at her and a devious smile pulls at his lips. As he takes a bite of his cheese cake, he waits until Cor takes another bite of her banana before he confidently says “It’s scrumptious, isn't it?”

Cordelia nearly chokes as she picks up on the blatant innuendo and the fact that he used the word she never wanted to hear, ever, ever again. Especially coming from him. Cordelia turns towards him and without thinking, whacks his shoulder. He laughs, nearly falling off the bench from the impact. Mark nudges him with his foot to give that extra push and Johnny falls to the ground laughing. His face is red from embarrassment, but he saw the opportunity and took it. Cordelia eventually starts laughing too. The sight of him clutching his stomach in laughter on the ground, face a bright red, made her feel not as bad about that day. At least what she had said was on accident.


End file.
